


you got me in a spin

by genresavvy



Category: World War Z (2013)
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Pre movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 08:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genresavvy/pseuds/genresavvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>gerry and karin meet in college, when he takes a class with a professor who's an asshole and she TA's that very class</p>
            </blockquote>





	you got me in a spin

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is basically my headcanon about how Gerry and Karin met, which my friend Felicia (hopeheisagentleman on tumblr) thought up! 
> 
> It also contains reference to another headcanon I have, which is that Gerry's parents were humanitarians who were murdered while working in another country.

Gerry is young and angry about so many things, about how messed up the world is, about the fact that his mom and dad are dead when all that they wanted to do was help people, about the fact that he wants to do something but he doesn’t know where to start.

He thought he would know by the time he got into college, but now he’s at his sophomore year and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He keeps hearing people say that that’s okay, but if he knows anything it’s that life is short and it never lasts as long as you hope it to or expect it to, so he has to figure this out.

Maybe college just isn’t for him. After all, helping change things like his parents did doesn’t require a degree, right? 

He picks out a bunch of classes haphazardly, except for the international relations class, because he figures that if he drops out and goes backpacking in Europe, he could use it.

The first day of class he walks in, and realizes he stands out like a sore thumb. Everyone else looks at him, and he hears some whispers as he realizes everybody knows everyone else and he totally chose a class primarily for a major, didn’t he?

He heads over to a chair and sits down, wondering if he should just drop out now and get it over with, because it can’t get any worse than this.

Which is just about the stupidest thing to think, because of course then it does get worse, because the instant the professor opens his mouth he can tell he’s a dick. If that’s not enough, he notices the guy look right at him with some mixture of disapproval and annoyance in his eyes which tells him this class isn’t going to be easy.

He decides he’ll just keep his head down and make it through this semester.

—-

As it turns out he’s way more optimistic than he ever even realized about this, because not only is the Prof a dick, but he seems to take deep personal offense to people not being completely and utterly thrilled to be in his class. All he wants to do is keep to himself and pass the class, but the asshole does everything to force him to take part and draws attention to him and it’s so pointed and immature and every time he walks to the class Gerry deeply considers just turning around and walking off the campus, and never returning.

He never does, though.

At some point he notices the TA, and he’s not quite sure why he didn’t — she’s pretty, around the same age as him, and seems a hell of a lot nicer than Lawsen. Then again, just about anyone is nicer than Lawsen. Anyways, he occasionally thinks he catches her looking at him, but he’s not sure if it’s pointed, or if she’s just glancing around the classroom.

Then, after yet another class of Lawsen being a dick, he manages to drop his binder on the ground and he hisses, “Shit.” as he starts picking them up. Soon enough he’s the only person left in the classroom, and he doesn’t know why that has always made him feel like an idiot but it just does — except then he realizes he isn’t, because the TA (Karin, was it?) is there, and she walks up and helps him pick up the rest of his papers. 

He was wrong when he thought of her as just ‘pretty’, she’s gorgeous and suddenly he feels nervous and oh god, he might as well be fifteen again trying to talk to Becky from his English class.

She offers him an understanding smile and says, “Look, I know Lawsen’s a dick, but Hackney’s classes are full. It’s just a semester, so we’re gonna make the best of it, okay?”

He means to say something normal, something that won’t make it obvious that he’s suddenly stuck in the mentality of teenage boy trying to talk to his crush but he’s suddenly flustered and the perfectly normal response somehow comes out as, “Yes, we do.”

She sort of pauses and looks at him with this bemused smile, and the next thing he knows she’s asking him to lunch and, shit, he is blushing, but somehow he manages to not screw up saying ‘yes’.

—-

They get lunch at some diner nearby the college and they talk about how much of an asshole Lawsen is for a while. She tells him a few stories which make him feel a lot better about the class in general.

At some point the subject of majors comes up, and he sighs as he explains that he doesn’t know, he’s considering dropping out, to be honest.

She blinks, looking surprised.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. It’s just…I don’t know, I thought you were a Journalism major. You just have that look. Like you want to tell people’s stories."

For a long moment he just stares at her, shocked by how much such a simple statement from someone he barely knows makes sense.

"Uh…sorry, that was probably weird to say."

"No, no, it’s fine." Gerry pauses, "It…it makes a lot of sense, actually. A lot more sense that anything else anyone’s said to me." He smiles at her, "Thanks."

She smiles back and he’s pretty sure that she’s blushing a little.

Maybe taking that class wasn’t such a bad thing after all.


End file.
